Tip{py} Tuesdays: Buy a Spare

It’s inevitable, it will happen, be prepared; your child will at some point lose that one obscure object they can not live without… And it just happened to us.

Smh, you’d think after 3 kids, being a former nanny and former preschool teacher, I would be overly prepared for all the challenges my children can throw at me. But noooooo. Here I am on my phone in the car on our way home from a family play day on ebay, Amazon, Target and every other site I can scour looking for a freaking “baby”.

I found it luckily, but not without a cost. SB is almost two and so her must-have-can-not-live-without lovey comes at a high cost. It can no longer be found on store shelves. Sigh, as I press “checkout” and cringe at the obsorbinate amount I must pay; I think back to how we got here.

I thought I was prepared. I picked out the lovey she would carry around with her the rest of her life. It is a cute TY elephant; and I bought two at once. Following in the steps of her siblings, I thought this was the perfect (and matching!) lovey for her. Her brother still has his TY tiger and Diva can not breath if she can’t find her TY giraffe. It only made sense to “keep it in the family”. But you can never prepare for them to be independent and make their own choices at such a early age. At 3 months old she made her choice. It was this scary looking security blanket with a piglet head.

Sorry, but those types of blankets scare me. I don’t understand why children fall in love with a blanket with a head on it. Creeeepppyyy! But, she bonded with it and never had it out of her sight since; until yesterday.

Hubs and I keep going back and forth; parenting fail? We always tell our kids their babies must stay in the car. We warn them they could get lost, stole and be mistaken for stealing (yes, it has happened). However, we figured she was in a stroller and really had no chance of losing it. But as soon as we loaded SB into the car we knew.

So lesson learned. We as parents need to stick to the rules we make. We make mistakes too; and now it’s costing us $20 to fix it. As soon as you realize what lovey they have attached themselves to, buy an extra!

Foodie Friday: Local Grinds- Matsomotos Shaved Ice

Hot day after a 6 miles hike with three small children. We used bribery to make sure we didn’t eat our young. And honestly I was jonesin for a sugar carb loaded ice cold dreamcicle. So after a 30 minute wait outside Matsumoto’s standing on a busy street; I could finally feel the ice cream and ice concoction running down my throat. It was amazing and well worth the wait, the crazy cars that were whizzing past us trying to dodge the tourist and our kids.

For me, I enjoyed a small with vanilla and strawberry with condensed milk on top and ice cream on the bottom. You must, I REPEAT must, spend the $.30 extra cents for holder. You and your clothes will thank me for that tip.

So when on island, do as the locals do; visit Matsumoto’s Shaved Ice up on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

Tip{py} Tuesday: Tips on Hiking with Kids

We are fortunate to live in a place where is about 365 days of summer. It’s amazing; if you are a outdoors person. We aren’t exactly that family, but we try.

When we first moved here we had grand ideas and multiple of to-do lists to check the boxes off on. We wanted to experience it all. However with our children having ASD, it can provide some challenges and limitations. But realizing to embrace life, and not the diagnosis, I have never let that stop us from experiencing life.

This past weekend was on of those life experiences and completed box. We went hiking. Not only did we go hiking- we went HIKING! Six miles, five hours, three kids under 6 and no tears (well maybe one). It was an incredible experience. Why? Hello! Did you just read those last sentences?

We had tried this particular hike two years ago. Bug was only 4, Diva was two and SB wasn’t even born (and I was 9 weeks pregnant with a baby we lost). We got about 500 feet down the trail when Bug feel and got a scraped knee, which to him felt like his leg was ripped off and spewing blood. It was a utter disaster.

Since then we have done a few more hikes. Most were miserable. However, we kept doing them. We hate that our kids are so attached to the boob tube and want them to have a childhood similar to ours when we spent hours outdoors. So we pressed on. Trying new hikes and new strategies to keep the kids moving. Somehow last weekend we found the right concoction of tricks to keep the kids moving (that or they were just delirious from a 6 mile hike they forgot to whine and complain).

Here is what we did:

Unlimited small snacks- We misjudged the length of the hike horribly. Disastrously. We thought it was 3 miles round trip; not three miles one way. Whoops. Luckily, I know my kids excuses. 1) I’m hungry 2) I have to go to the bathroom and 3) I’m tired/my legs hurt. So I decided to find answers for them.

I packed several small snacks (instead of large ones). Using small snacks helped them stay focused longer. We used applesauce, fruit snacks and gram crackers. We know for our kids it’s just a excuse. They weren’t starving. So no need for a massive snack where they would need to stop and sit to eat. We packed things that could be eaten on the to and be pieces out. The best was the crackers. I brought a whole sleeve of them. The kids would eat one and be great for about 30 min to a hour.

Next, we keep them active. I’m not talking physically active; mentally active. We of course did some geocaching along the way, pointed out the millions of caterpillars along the trail, stopped and watched jeeps play in the mud, sang songs, asked them questions about what we saw and we each made up a story (one of Divas favorite things to do). Keeping them mentally focused helped them from asking “are we there yet?” And telling us like a broken record their legs were tired. When they finally I said it was at that point I ask them if they wanted to carry SB in the pack.

Then the final excuse- I have to use the bathroom. Well, it’s a hike. There are no man built bathrooms. Pop a squat. I was amazed diva told me only once she has to go. When I told her what she needed to do; she no longer needed to go.

Overall it was a great experience. I think it worked for several reasons-

We hiked during winter, early in the morning (plus 5 hours), feed them regularly, kept them mentally entertained, zero elevation gain and a trail along the beach with a nice breeze always helps.

So get your kids away from the boob tube, and when the weather warms up- head out doors.

Wordy Wednesday: ENT

Many of us with special needs kids have visited the ENT at some point in time.
They deal with everything to foreign objects up kids noses to ruling out medical issues causing your precious not to talk.

We recently just visited them for the lader. I quickly had to educate myself on all the lingo since up until this point this was one of the few specialists my children had yet to visit.

I guess your wondering what ENT stands for, and if you already know, your probably waiting for the hysterical story I have to go with it; cause you know I do.

As defined by Webster’s, tells us the ENT stands for ears, nose and throat. So basically any reason beyond what your PCP (primary care physician) can take care of you would be referred to an ENT.

In our case, SB wasn’t talking. Well she was but it took her awhile and when she did it didn’t make sense. We knew Diva was delayed as well and like before, I knew the first step was to rule out an hearing issue. (tip: if you have concerns your little one isn’t talking on schedule or right, simply get a hearing test. Most insurances will cover it. Just call them before time and see what you need to do. We had to go to our child’s PCP and tell them our concerns.)

I was able to email my daughters PCP and ask her to put in a referral for a hearing test. Due to my daughters medical background she agreed it needed. Within a week we were in the audiologists office.

There were two types of tests they preformed. A tempatic and what I call the “bank vault” test.

For the first test they stick a ear plug thingy into one ear and take some readings. SB failed.

For the bank vault test they put you (dependent on the age and child) and the child in a bank like vault and close the door. Sorry to all you claustrophobic people. There is no sound getting in and out. Then they test at what decibel range your child can hear at. For SB they kept having to turn it up. She passed, but not in a acceptable range.

They told me to come back once a month every three months. This mama don’t play games. I immediately emailed her PCP again and said give me a referral to ENT. She did.

The next week we were in the ENT office and within 5 minutes had the surgery scheduled for her tube placement.

Yesterday, she had her tubes in. Last night she said “my shoes” or at least a variation of it. Proudest mommy moment!

She is doing great. But get very mad at the nurses after the surgery. Seems the only way she would stop screaming like a wild woman was to keep the Popsicles coming. They finally cut her off and had a little “come to Jesus” meeting with her. Kinda like a intervention with a addict. Shortly after she wouldn’t calm down and they were afraid she’d end up in the ER with head trama from throwing her body around like a rag doll. So we were discharged immediately.

Foodie Friday- Lime Cilantro Shrimp Kabobs

We live in Hawaii and its hard to not eat seafood or fish. I have recently started embracing all the fresh ingredients we can get. However, for this recipe I cheated and bought frozen shrimp, but buy fresh! You can taste a difference.

I was able to whip up this recipe while Hubs was giving the spawn a shower. Super easy and fast! All I had to do was buy the shrimp and the rest I had in my cabinet.

Ingredients
Shrimp
Kabob skewers
Salt
Garlic (fresh or powder)
Cilantro (fresh or dried
Ground cumin
Limes

Make sure you soak the kabobs in water prior to loading them up.

I defrosted the shrimp then added the spices. It was mainly 1 and 1/4 of each. I would have used fresh cilantro if I had it on hand (I didn’t) and I used minced garlic I had in the fridge. I mixed it all and just made sure it had a good coating all over. I sliced the limes into thin slices that will be later used on the kabobs.

Next I skewed the shrimp and lime. For what I had on hand it ended up being three shrimp and three lime slices (folded in half) on each kabob. Make sure you start and end with the shrimp. It will help hold the limes on.

Time to cook! Over a medium heat grill throw them on for about 1-2 minutes on each side. They will be done when they are opaque. Remember you can eat shrimp raw, so it’s ok if it’s not cooked though out. You just don’t want to over cook.